New World Man

"New World Man" Timeline

The truth about "New World Man".

Captain John Smith

This episode deals with historical inaccuracies that cropped up while the players were still alive. Most sources seem to agree, or at least acknowledge the possibility,  that John Smith embellished the story of his rescue by Pocahontas, especially once he was the only surviving witness. He apparently didn't tell the story of Pocahontas saving his life until his letter to Queen Anne in 1616, and didn't publish the story until 1624 when Pocahontas and her father were both dead. Some believe it was because when she saved him, he didn't want to admit that he, the rugged adventurer, was saved by an eleven year old savage. But he grew fond of her over the years, and by the time he told the story she was something of a legend in Britain. Maybe he also just mellowed out a bit; no longer as concerned with his own image he told a story that would cement his friend Pocahontas as a heroic figure. Some sources also say that he may have thought she saved his life, but it was actually a part of a dramatic ritual symbolizing his death and rebirth as a part of the Powhatan society. All in all it's very confusing so I opted to work around the dramatic rescue and show that she did in fact rescue Jamestown first by providing them with food, and later by warning them of Powhatan's impending attack.


What went wrong?

Pocahontas AKA Matoaka
AKA Rebecca

     John Smith was actually held prisoner for over a month. In our story it seems like he's only there for an hour or so.
     While Pocahontas did learn English, she probably didn't speak a word of at the time of John Smith's capture, especially since he was probably the first white person she had ever seen.
     The romance between Smith and Pocahontas is debatable. Most sources agree that they flirted with each other but there was nothing serious between them. It was probably more of a schoolgirl crush (as was mentioned cynically by Dennis in the story).
     The story where Pocahontas rescues the English from her father's attack is true, though the events played out differently in the real story.
     I had the settlers drinking alcohol a lot more frequently than they probably did. They didn't have a lot of beer (or anything) at Jamestown in the early years, and apparently didn't start brewing their own until the 1620s.
     John Smith's letter to Queen Anne was much abridged. The original can be seen here.
     I should probably point out that Pocahontas and Smith met one more time. Not long after her soirée with the king and queen, Pocahontas met up with Smith in Brentford, near London. It seems to have been an awkward and unhappy reunion. Smith no longer the powerful man he was in Virginia, Pocahontas in her uncomfortable European outfit. She told him she thought he was dead and insisted on calling him "father" which irked Smith. Soon thereafter Pocahontas and John Rolfe set off to return to the New World but Pocahontas died of an illness as they were embarking leaving behind a son named Thomas Rolfe. Through him people today trace their ancestry back to Pocahontas. A famous example is Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, the wife of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.
     The fragile peace established with the marriage of Rolfe and Pocahontas didn't last. Pocahontas' father died not long after her and the bloodshed resumed–a tragic end to a dramatic story.


Sources:

Barbour, Philip L. The Three Worlds of Captain John Smith. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964. Print.

Chatterton, Edward Keble. Captain John Smith. London: Joh Lane, 1927. Print.

Gleach, Frederic W. "The Ritual World of Pocahontas." Natural History 115.9 (2006): 40-47. EBSCO Publishing. Web. 22 Sept. 2011.

Lambert, Katie, and Sarah Dowdy. "Pocahontas: An American Princess." Audio blog post. How Stuff Works. Discovery Network, 18 Nov. 2009. Web. 20 Aug. 2011. <howstuffworks.com>.Paine, Lauran. Captain John Smith and the Jamestown Story. New York: Hippocrene, 1973. Print.

Vaughan, Alden T. American Genesis: Captain John Smith and the Founding of Virginia. Boston: Little, Brown, 1975. Print.

"Jamestown - Interactive." National Geographic Magazine. Web. 27 Sept. 2011. <http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/05/jamestown/jamestown-standalone>.

This story's soundtrack:

(I didn't make it)

Bastille Day

"BASTILLE DAY" Timeline

This is my chronfession about Bastille Day.

I wanted to kick off the series with a story that really showed Hailey and Dennis' characters. Hailey fell right in with the political philosophers leading up to the French Revolution, and Dennis came face to face with historically significant characters, only to for once see them not as characters but as people. These themes will be expanded on through the series.

What went wrong?

The Royal Family on the balcony at
Versailles, overlooking the angry mob

The timeline in Bastille Day is completely wrong, condensed to allow for a fast moving story. Versailles wasn't attacked until October, almost three months after the storming of the Bastille. An angry mob, consisting mostly of market women enraged by the lack of bread and revolutionaries seeking political reform, infiltrated the palace. They murdered servants, looted the place, and ultimately called the king out onto a balcony where he tried to pacify them. They still revered him as a monarch, but called for the death of Antoinette who they saw as a foreign harlot. She came out onto the balcony with one of her children in her arms and the crowd somehow saw her as a kind mother and not the barbaric tyrant they expected. Still, the crowd forced the family into a carriage and took them back to Paris.

The guillotine wasn't in fact used until April 25, 1792, almost three years after the events of our story.

Marie-Thérèse, Queen of France

The "great princess" referenced by Rousseau was obviously not Denis Diderot. The truth is no one's really sure who the philosophe was talking about. Some think it was Marie-Thérèse, the wife of King Louis XIV, who lived a century before Antoinette. It definitely wasn't Antoinette who, as was stated in the story, was only a child in Austria at the time Rousseau published his Confessions (which is where the quote is found).


I guess it's pretty unbelievable that practically everyone spoke English when they needed to; Louis XVI was fluent, but Antoinette only spoke broken English, and the dauphin probably never learned it. Rousseau also never spoke English. Needless to say I bent the truth there for the sake of the story.


Sources:


Belloc, Hilaire. Marie Antoinette. Freeport, NY: for Libraries, 1972. Print.


Denton, C.S. Absolute Power (Arcturus Publishing, Ltd. 2006)


Gibson, Candice, and Josh Clark. "Did Marie Antoinette Really Tell French Peasants to Eat Cake?" Audio blog post. How Stuff Works. Discovery Network, 08 Sept. 2009. Web. 15 Aug. 2011. <www.howstuffworks.com>.


Shenkman, Richard. Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of World History. New York, NY: HarperPerennial, 1994. Print.

Oh, and by the way:

Chronfessions: Preface

Chronfessions is an add on to Chronodyssey, my short story series. Each story involves protagonists Hailey and Dennis embarking on a fact-finding adventure through history. The facts are laid out as accurately as possible but, as with any historical fiction, there are some alteration for the sake of a good story. 


This blog is my disclaimer. In it I will try to explain where I skewed the truth. In doing so I hope to give you both an entertaining story without promoting historical misconceptions.


Thanks for reading!


-Matt Robertshaw